We talk about the growth of soccer and how some think it may never compete with the NFL. I often hear people say, and I don't know if this is true, that more and more American football fields are being used for soccer could this translate to more fans and shrink the NFL in years to come?
No, it won't. Soccer and football aren't in competition for anything but players, and only then at a few positions on the football field. In the American sporting world, they're quite complimentary in terms of season.
This is a common misconception that I see repeated over and over on Bigsoccer. Football sucks millions of potential players away from soccer. The fact that these players may never have the size to become major football players at the college or professional level does not mean that they can go back in time and give soccer a shot.
Millions? You are certainly lost. 1.8 million kids under the age of 18 play football. 1.8 million. By contrast 11 million play basketball and almost 9 million play soccer. And a big portion of the kids who play soccer also play football. There is no way this number is in the millions - hell, there aren't even 2 million football players to begin with. So much for the misconception.
That's not true everywhere. Where I live HS soccer is a spring sport and competes with baseball/softball, track, golf, and tennis, the other spring sports.
Not at all. First of all, I gave no specific time period. I did not say millions per year (and please don't get cute with this under 18 stuff as if 1 year olds are playing football). Secondly, that 1.8 million is absurdly low as it doesn't take into account non-organized football, which is a common way the sport is played. You think most 12 year olds are playing organized football? Hardly. What we need in this country is more unorganized soccer instead of taking little Jimmy (and Jane) to soccer practice. Thirdly, the popularity of football could have a tremendous impact on kids not playing football. They want to be football players, but aren't even good enough at their level. If soccer were more popular, they might play soccer.
At the pro level i think they actually are complimentary they play at diffrent times of the year, in the future when attendence gets better and MLS seems like a better investment i think u will see alot of NFL owners buying MLS teams to fill dates in there stadiums during the NFL off season
Don't virtually all kids who play soccer play in youth leagues? Every time I see kids in my store (to buy baseball cards by the way) in soccer gear, they have on town uniforms with numbers. That's why European prognosticators contend America will never embrace soccer, her people don't play it for simple recreation, they play it for organized competition. Don't forget, we have the highest percentage of organized youth participation in the world.
Our winters are cold but not cold enough for winter soccer In Texas, the soccer season runs semi-parallel with basketball (Dec. thru March) and is done that way to give Texas High School football all prioity in the Fall. Thus, those boys that are two code footballers can play gridiron in the Fall, soccer in the winter and spring and then go directly back to spring football and weights over the summer. Not a bad way to stay in shape. College soccer does suffer from being buried in the Fall as the NFL and College gridiron seasons take center stage. Maybe ESPN or regional FOX stations could air a few classic college rivalry matches like Duke/UNC or Mich/OSU if they were ever to enhance men's college soccer. There could be a ping-pong match between Alabama and Auburn and 1,000 people would show up on principle alone!
Re: Our winters are cold but not cold enough for winter soccer OSU's soccer program seems to be on the rise a little bit. They won the conference tournament two years ago, and the athletic department has put some money into new facilities. If I'm not mistaken, UofM's men's soccer program is very young. It may be only two or three years old. Nothing is going to touch the NFL in the near future. They've got the perfect game and schedule for television, and the players union is weak.
As far as the NFL (rather than American football in general) being hurt by the growth of MLS...no way. And that's a good thing. This is a big country. We have room for lots of pro leagues in different sports. The NFL is a bloated giant (I'm referring to the LEAGUE here, not the sport), and will probably need to slim down at some point. It's just getting too damn big and self-important. Still, the Superbowl has become an American tradition, and that won't change anytime soon. I like the idea that NFL owners may want to become MLS owners to use their stadiums year-round. Why not? A partnership between MLS and the most affluent league in the country couldn't hurt.
I used to think that this would be good for MLS but how many more teams do we need playing in 70,000 seat stadiums. This hurts the game, plus how comitted to soccer would these owners be. One of the arguements for the WNBA was that since the arensa sat empty anyways the NBA owners will gladly support the league. Not so sure these owners are that thrilled with the losses they are going through.
A good point, obviously I didn't think this through. And I'm a guy who believes that ownership of soccer-specific stadiums with 20-30000 seats is the ONLY solution to MLS' long-term survival! So obviously I'm not listening to my own advice. Not so sure, however, that SOME kind of cross-ownership wouldn't happen, or wouldn't be beneficial. MLS is growing, will grow, along with soccer in this country. There's got to be some loaded NFL owners--with saavy in the biz--out there who, someday soon, might be tempted to get in on the action early.
I don't want to see other sports fail. I just think soccer can be a lot bigger. In Britain Rugby is popular even though they have a big famous soccer league. This country will and should have other sports. At the moment MLS doesn't even seem to get a photograph in the local paper, just a couple lines of print!
Asking this questions, to me, is like asking that because some Mexican bought a slingshot, should America prepare for invasion? I'm sure the NFL isn't worried about the MLS. Besides, I don't want anything to hurt the NFL. I love my Broncos too much. Can't we have both? What's that? We can have both? Great.